La Petite Cuisine
10 Jalan Serene, Singapore
+656314 3173

I was tucked away in Singapore for four months to shoot a TV series called the Kitchen Musical .? I play Maddie, a sous chef in a French restaurant called the Avilon. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can catch the show every Saturday, 7:30 PM on Studio 23 in the Philippines and on AXN Asia ).

I spent an entire month preparing for my role: dance classes with Australian choreographer Jason Coleman, script reading sessions with our director cheeK and kitchen boot camp with Chef Horst to familiarize ourselves in a restaurant's kitchen.? It was during that period of time when I discovered that I wasn't exactly mad about French cuisine. And that was...

Problem # 1

I love food! That much you may already know from watching the "Digestive Sisters" blogs with Nicole but French food in particular never was my favorite.? French food and the fancy ambience associated with it has always intimidated me. Save for this scenario:

A

Karylle (Jerome Ascano, NPPA Images)

I worked on the Roadtrip album for almost three years (written in trips to Boracay, Vigan, Baguio, Tagaytay, etc.) and when it was finally time to release it, I wasn't even able to promote it because I was headed to the biggest "roadtrip" of my life... The Kitchen Musical . Today, I happily share with you snippets of my life in Singapore , the setting of our little TV show. It was a little lonely sometimes because it was my first time to be away from home... four months at that. The upside was that I really felt loved because my family and friends would visit me almost every weekend, I kid you not. Now, it's time to share the love...

Here's one of the songs I co-wrote with Sponge Cola lead vocalist Yael Yuzon.

Think of this as my postcard to you from Singapore...that arrived very very late =) haha!

A special thank you to Nelson from The Kitchen Musical- @juwanda_TFBB for letting me bake with you in your Fabulous Baker Boy Kitchen as well as being a part of this music video. Please

Sponge Cola (Contributed photo)

I remember the first time I hated a Sponge Cola song.? It was one of their biggest hits Gemini. I think it's the slow-dance worthy waltz time measure that annoyed me since it didn't match the typical style that I would associate with a band.

What I remember even more is the second Sponge Cola song I hated. I know my exact location when I heard their take on Tito Gino Padilla's "Closer You and I" on my car radio.

Maybe your jaw dropped a bit, maybe you laughed, maybe you are reaching for your mouse to click on the THUMBS DOWN ICON at the bottom of the blog. But before you do, here's my afterthought.? I think I was jealous of the band scene at the time which was booming…while the new solo artists like me were struggling.

Enter "Araw, Oras. Tagpuan." I can never take back how I felt about those first two experiences but it's always funnier to hear about a hater-fan story.

SPONGE FACTS

1)?????? Sponges are poriferans. #KuyaKimAnimalKingdomTrivia

2)?????? ?Why Sponge Cola ? "Sponge" was

FEATURED ARTIST OF THE WEEK : Rachelle Ann Go

Rachelle Ann or Shin was my seat mate in the "ASAP" dressing room when I first transferred to ABS-CBN.?? She is one of the strongest performers you'll ever catch on stage. Off stage, she is a real sweetheart which is why a lot of people love her.

One of the things a few people know about Shin is that she is actually quite good at doing hair and make-up, a trait that she shares with Asia's Songbird Regine Velasquez-Alcasid.? I saw this similarity when Shin excitedly reported on her wall that she was excited when Camille Prats asked her to do her make-up.

As Ariel of the Little Mermaid, her latest and most exciting role to date, she not only captures everyone's hearts with her mesmerizing voice, she also draws the eyebrows of the female cast.? Ate Reg or Regine V. in turn also does the make-up of those in need of expertise. I myself am a customer of Regine, the make-up artist when we did a concert in Cebu awhile back.? It's funny how the

Courtesy of @divinemlee divinemlee.com. Photo taken by Victor Basa

Our SIMPLE GIRL Zia is the BIRTHDAY GIRL. Her birthday month will forever be a memorable time for Zia as she releases her debut album, shoots her first music video, and celebrates her birthday with a Teatrino concert and an ASAP rockin' birthday. Phew! Talk about leaving your teens with a bang!

And yes, her new album is #4 OPM (#7 overall) in the Astrovision/Astroplus Top-Selling albums list from September 19-25, 2011.

Who's that girl, you ask?

She is...

TWIN GIRL. Let's start from the very beginning, the cutest place to start. No she doesn't have a twin but when she was younger, our mama Zsa Zsa Padilla would dress her and our other sister Nicole in similar clothes which made onlookers think they were twins.

Here's a magazine photo of my sisters Nicole and Zia. Aren't they the cutest? I hope they don't kill me for putting this photo here.

BOOKWORM GIRL. Zia loves to travel with a set of her favorite books ever since she was young. Mama likes to call them "comfort books" because

Top row: Thou Reyes, Ikey Canoy
2nd row: Arthur Acuna, Debra Teng, Juwanda Hassim, Christian Bautista, Erwin Shah Ismail, Karylle, Oon Shu An, Stephen Rahman-Hughes, Nadiah M. Din,? Rosemary Vandenbroucke, Juan Jackson
3rd row: Carla Dunareanu, Gayle Nerva

REWIND.

More than a year ago, I went to a very hush-hush audition for a new TV musical.? I didn't actually know much about the project except that they were shooting a pilot (formerly known as a pitch tape) in Manila to present the project to networks, sponsors, etc.

FAST FORWARD - PLAY.

Almost a year later, I got a call saying that the project was pushing through and much to my surprise, it was going to be a regional TV series (read: to be shown in 16 countries) to be shot in Singapore.? Capital W-O-W! The creator and director of the show, CheeK, together with The Group Entertainment's Wendy Ko, Jojo Yu, Ria Lacson and Studio 23's Vince Rodriguez and Mark Salamat met with me in the ABS-CBN building. They didn't really have to say much

The Digestive Sisters at 2nd's

OMG! The food is fabulous! When we heard about the bacon chicharon, we knew that this would be an adventure that would require a certain amount of exercise afterwards.

Watch out for the Digestive Sisters' next blogs because we are going international.? We will share our new food adventures from Australia, London and Amsterdam. Yahoo!

Karylle and Christian Bautista (NPPA Images)

The movie is showing right now in cinemas all over the Philippines.? It will premiere in Indonesia on September 27.

Christian or Ian plays a teacher.? In real life, it's his brother Joshua who is actually an English teacher in their hometown Cavite.? We know a lot about Christian the singer, the actor and the dancer (that's right-watch out for his smooth moves in the Kitchen Musical on AXN & Studio 23 this October) but I thought it would be fun to get to know what he was like back in school.

Grade School: Cavite School of St. Mark & International Christian Academy (Grade 5 onwards)

Did you ever wonder what Ian was like in Grade School. You'll never believe that he was such a naughty boy!

"When I was in grade school, I had a friend named Martin and we went out to the field to set some traps for our fellow classmates. So, we dug a